A damn'd cramp piece of penmanship as ever I saw in my life!
--She Stoops to Conquer

When the Templar reached the hall of the castle, he found De Bracy
already there. "Your love-suit," said De Bracy, "hath, I suppose, been
disturbed, like mine, by this obstreperous summons. But you have come
later and more reluctantly, and therefore I presume your interview has
proved more agreeable than mine."

"Has your suit, then, been unsuccessfully paid to the Saxon heiress?"
said the Templar.

"By the bones of Thomas a Becket," answered De Bracy, "the Lady Rowena
must have heard that I cannot endure the sight of women's tears."

"Away!" said the Templar; "thou a leader of a Free Company, and regard
a woman's tears! A few drops sprinkled on the torch of love, make the
flame blaze the brighter."

"Gramercy for the few drops of thy sprinkling," replied De Bracy; "but
this damsel hath wept enough to extinguish a beacon-light. Never was
such wringing of hands and such overflowing of eyes, since the days of
St Niobe, of whom Prior Aymer told us. [30] A water-fiend hath possessed
the fair Saxon."

"A legion of fiends have occupied the bosom of the Jewess," replied the
Templar; "for, I think no single one, not even Apollyon himself, could
have inspired such indomitable pride and resolution.--But where is
Front-de-Boeuf? That horn is sounded more and more clamorously."